Nicklaus to Design a TPC Course in Michigan

DEARBORN, Mich. — The Professional Golfers' Assn. Tour will begin building the 15th course in its nationwide network of Tournament Players Club courses this spring in this Detroit suburb, officials announced.

The 18-hole Tournament Players Club of Michigan, the first designed by golfing great Jack Nicklaus, will host a major PGA Tour event, according to Tour Commissioner Deane Beman and Wayne S. Doran, chairman of Ford Motor Land Development Corp.

Ford Land, a subsidiary of Ford Motor Co., owns the 201-acre site on which the course will be built. The PGA Tour will develop and operate the course and has an option to buy it after construction is completed, Beman and Doran said in a joint statement.

The cost of the project was not mentioned in the statement, but Beman said it would create about 60 permanent jobs.

The TPC of Michigan course will be designed to accommodate large crowds and television coverage of a major annual PGA Tour event, the statement said. The event has not yet been scheduled, but an announcement would be made later, it said.

Nicklaus has designed 48 courses now in use, 18 others now under construction and has contracted to design 19 more, but the Dearborn course is the first TPC course to be designed by the PGA's all-time top money winner, the statement said.

"I use what Mother Nature gave us when I see the property," Nicklaus said. "I consider a top priority for any course I build is to do the utmost to preserve the natural character of the land."

"The building of the first Tournament Players Club golf course in Michigan should delight golf fans as well as players," Doran said. "Jack Nicklaus has pledged to design a course that will be a great place for watching the world's top professional golfers compete in a major PGA Tour event.

"It also will be a course that will be an enjoyable and challenging place for golfers of all skill levels to play."